Voice of China's emerging hawks? A critical analysis of the Global Times - (A preliminary study)

Voice of China's emerging hawks?
A critical analysis of the Global Times
              (A preliminary study)

                 Chengju Huang
        School of Media and Communication
                 RMIT University

I. Why Global Times (GT)?
• Published by the People’s Daily in April 2009 (The Chinese-language version Huanqiu Shibao
  launched in 1993).
• A conservative political tabloid: focusing on both international and domestic issues from a pro-
  government and national interest oriented perspective via a popular-sensational way
• Appealing to an elite and strong nationalistic readership domestically, and allowing the West hear
  the voice of a rising and increasingly confident China clearly:
         GT‟s readers “include ambassadors, business leaders, politicians, and intellectuals. China‟s
         top universities use the newspaper as a teaching tool for the nation‟s future elite”
         (GT “About us”: http://www.globaltimes.cn/AboutUs.aspx)

• Influential: a daily circulation of 1.5M (Chinese-language version), quoted frequently by leading
  Western media:
        … is a remarkable innovation … the English edition strays into realms once thought taboo.
         (The Economist: The Chinese are coming. 4 March 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/15607496):

        … the tone of the English version is less strident than its Chinese version and the paper has been
        developing something of a reputation for fairly insightful stories that don‟t simply hew to the Party line
        and discussing topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and Internet censorship. (Ryan Dutcher ,
         2 March 2010, The Wall Street Journal, http://www.eastwestpr.com/2010/03/china-daily-redesigns-its-print-edition-to-remain-competitive/)

• As part of Chinese-government‟s efforts to build up its global media network and "present an
  international vision with a Chinese perspective”, which was directly triggered by (among other
  factors) harsh Western criticisms of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Western criticisms of the Beijing Olympic Games:
• Media coverage of frequent interruptions in the torch rally in Western
  countries
• Boycott calls from some Western politicises, media and activists
• The Games as propaganda of a police state and was compared to the
  1936 Berlin Games under Hitler
• Restriction to foreign journalists / hotel-taxi spying
• Good games without (or with little) fun/public participation
• Arrest of “human rights”/pro-Tibet activists
• Air pollution
• Massive spending (huge cost for propaganda purpose)
• Mass performance/volunteers (only China & NK can do)
• Fake singing / firework
• Ai Weiwei: Zhang Y. M. is a „an artist without soul”

In Particular: CNN’s Jack Cafferty really angered the
Chinese government and the general public:

(while speaking about the US trade deficit with China):

"We continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the
poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you
can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we're
buying from Wal-Mart.

"So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed.”

"I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've
been for the last 50 years.”

(CNN: 9 April 08)

An official conclusion was drawn:

The situation of Western domination of China’s international image
must be responded quickly and effectively.

On his June 2008 visit to the People’s Daily, Hu Jintao
lamented the “West’s strength and our weakness” in
global communication.
(The Economist: The Chinese are coming. 4 March 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/15607496).

A strategic official
response to this
Challenge:
- Hu in Oct 2009 presided over
  China‟s first “world media
  summit” (attended by global
  media giants such as Reuters, the
  BBC and News Corp)
- GT English-language version
  lunched in April 2009
- CNC (China Xinhua News
  Network Corporation): A 24 hours
  English-language news channel
  launched in July 2010:
  http://www.cncworld.tv/
- Xinhua‟s sign (believed under a
  long-term contract) of large LED
  billboard in NY‟s Time Square:
  August 2011                         http://inventorspot.com/files/images/Adco-popup.jpg

II. This study: Examining GT’s editorial policy via a
   critical analysis of its editorials
• LR: seemingly no systematic academic research about it yet (though lots
  of online discussion of the newspaper)

• Testing the popular perception of the paper as a nationalistic voice of
  China’s emerging hawks; and if it is the case then its meaning and
  implications

• Data collection: Sample size: 6-month GT editorials (Mar-Aug, 2011): 173
  items total

• Initial findings: some basic statistics by placing the items into various
  categories

• An initial contextual analysis of the findings

Geographic focus

Domestic    International     Domestic-international

 86/173       73/173                 16/173
 48.6%         42.2%                  9.2%

Engage in debate on controversial-important domestic and
                  international issues

            Yes                              No

          125/173                           48/173
           72%                               28%

Approaches to controversial domestic issues including public
                 criticisms of the government

• constructively echoing public criticisms

• defending government stance against populism / liberalism / radicalism

• smoothening public angers by putting things in context (finding good excuses)

• upbeat and optimistic: challenges and difficulties are temporary in a transition
  society like China; they are developmental issues; endure for a better future

• the current political system is not perfect but overall works well for China; we
  have been doing well by any standard

• being patriotic is glorious: national interest is above all; work with the
  government as a constructive partner for a powerful greater China

E.g., re the high-speed railway disaster that killed 32 in July, GT
         published 8 editorials in 40 days (13 July - 24 Aug)
• Tightrope between duty and public say
• Giving the rail system credit where due
• Keeping the faith with Made-in-China
• Truth will out - easing public doubts
• Officials' arrogance results in poor PR
• Safety should guide pace of development
• Train crash lesson for railway progress

• Criticism must be handled the right way

Similarly, GT interprets international issues from China’s national interest. E.g., a
serials of editorials on Lybiia crisis

Approaches to US-Western criticisms of China

• ideologically biased and culturally arrogant: always think they are superior and
intend to lecture China (and others)
• West-centred and liberal-fundamentalism oriented: giving no room for any
alternative modernities

• politicise human-rights issues

• for their own national interest: containing a rising and non-Western China

• double-standard

• media imperialism

Taking on the USA:
            Among the 73 items re international issues, relating to

                    USA                          The rest of the world

                     33                                   40
                    45%                                  55%
Criticising US or hitting back
  US (government or non-          other
 gover.) criticisms of China

             28                    5
           84.8%                  15%

Conclusion & discussion:
•   Coherently conservative-nationalistic: serving China‟s national interest, often though not always pro-government (under pressure
from time to time)

•   Has both enlightened and amused readers (“homeland of patriotists”; “coach of (new) Boxers”

• Representing the ideas of China‟s rising conservatives collectively: The editorials were most written by its editor-in-chief Hu
Xijin by consulting with a thank tank consisting of more than 100 top scholars, strategists and policy makers across China

• Dares to engage in debate from a conservative perspective and sensationally outspoken and blunt: a drastic departure from
China‟s traditional low-key foreign policy and international communication: The time to passively respond to the USA‟s/West‟s
lectures is over.

• From Propaganda to PR-Hegemony: A meaningful alternative voice on domestic and international affairs, often thought-
provoking and certainly not boring

    The Chinese public is not satisfied with old orthodoxies and stale stories, and neither is
    the Global Times.” (GT “About us”: http://www.globaltimes.cn/AboutUs.aspx)

• “Commercial nationalism”: Find a smart editorial strategy that combines national interest (nationalism is safe and sellable), media
interest (sensational political tabloid, competing with the China Daily) and reader interest (rising Chinese nationalism)

• “New World Information Order” debate; an Orientalist approach; commercial developmental journalism (partnership journalism);
Asian/Confucian values

• Powerful-influential, but not the only, and certainly not the dominant voice in China: e.g., China‟s leading liberal press
outlet the Southern Weekend (Obama chose to hold his keynote interview with the paper during his Nov 2009 visit to China), takes on
GT recently: openly challenges the GT‟s editorial policy.

•   liberalism, nationalism and new-left: three major social theories-movements in current China